[miningmx.com] — EXPLORATION and mining company Village said it had intersected platinum group metals at its 77%-held Lesego platinum prospect at some 700m, almost half the initial estimated depth of the resource.
“This confirms the Lesego Project as a large, shallow to medium depth, high grade ore body, which we believe will be economically viable,” said Bernard Swanepoel, CEO of Village.
This follows an 18-month drilling programme in which the resource at Lesego was also increased by about 50% to 41.8 million resource ounces of which 16.8 million ounces is Merensky reef and 25 million ounces of deeper UG2 chromitite.
“The intersection of Merensky at a shallower depth of 320m is a further bonus and if the new shallow drilling programme from 700m to surface produces the same quality and consistency of results, we will realise the further benefit of reduced capex requirements and time to production,’ Swanepoel said.
The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) owns the remaining 23% of Lesego. Situated near Burgersfort, South Africa, Lesego is fully funded to bankable feasibility study by the IDC, to the tune of R142m.
